


Karuna

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Mahabharata fics [4]
Category: Mahabharata - Vyasa
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Oneshot, missing moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 09:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15860466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: The Upapandavas learn about Urvashi’s curse on Arjuna.karuna (Sanskrit): empathy





	Karuna

**Author's Note:**

> The kids’ ages at this point:
> 
> Prativindhya & Suthanu, Yudhisthir, age 16  
> Sutasoma (Soma), Bheem, 15  
> Shrutakarma (Rudra) & Pragati, Arjun, 14  
> Shatanika (Anish), Nakul, 13  
> Shrutasena (Tasena), Sahadev, 12  
> Abhimanyu, Arjuna & Subhadra, age 8
> 
> Takes place about five years into exile, around the time Arjun receives Urvashi’s curse.

Arjuna’s tapasyas to procure celestial weapons are well-known; what are less well-known are the curses he incurs in the process of doing so. All the better, so that when the thirteenth year comes, his disguise works. Still, the Upapandavas are desperate for any information about how their parents fare in exile, and so while they are staying at Dwaraka, they come to know of Urvashi’s wrath.

Tasena smothers his snickering as best he can beneath his hands. “The world’s greatest archer, to spend a whole year as a eunuch? I’d _love_ to see that!”

“Will you call him Mother now instead of Father?” Anish asks Rudra, heedless of the dark glare his elder brother sends his way.

“Mother will have to teach him so many things about being a woman!” Tasena again.

“I daresay Father has already learned the first and most important lesson-- that sometimes a _no_ might be a _yes_ , for all that others pay heed to it,” Pragati snaps finally.

Her younger brothers turn and look askance at her, and Pragati sighs. They are the youngest of their motley bunch, and the last to learn empathy. Perhaps she has a lesson of her own to teach somebody.

“You do realize that Maha Urvashi cursed Father because she couldn’t handle the idea that somebody might not want her? That because he dared to stick to his principles and chose not to dishonor Mother, he was robbed of his very humanity, his most prized possession?”

Anish, naive brat that he is, does not realize. “He got what he deserved, if you ask me. Who in his right mind would turn down one of Indra’s celestial dancers?”

“My father, who is doing everything in his power to avenge our fathers and Mother, who turned her down so that he might receive the weapons that will grant us victory in the war that comes,” Rudra finally speaks, his voice edged with impatience and bitterness. “Who was humiliated, just as Mother was humiliated, for valuing honor over desire.”

Suthanu can see Tasena and Anish becoming more and more confused, and consequently more and more riled. She does not want a fight to break out, not when they already have so little to smile about these days, so she steps in, hoping that a more soothing voice, another angle of looking at the matter, will defuse the situation. “You remember how AngaRaj Karna insulted Mother at the dice hall for having five husbands, and insinuated that she had no way of truly knowing which of us belonged to which father?”

Anish’s face darkens with anger. “He was the one who gave the order for her to be stripped. He always hated Mother, because she chose our fathers over him at her swayamvar, and it was his idea of revenge, all these years later.”

“And just as Mother paid the price for his bitterness, so has Uncle Arjuna,” Suthanu concludes, and Anish and Tasena’s heads finally drop in subdued understanding.


End file.
